An Ironman guide to strategy!

Think strategically

At some moment in our career I'm pretty sure we all have been told by our leaders in our performance reviews that "In order to get to the next level, you should think more strategically", which in most cases is something you need to grow in your organization, but honestly, what does that even mean?, I remember having those conversations on my performance reviews and thinking "now what? I don't have any idea how to start!".

Strategy is nothing more that setting one or more key targets, that will make the business (or whatever you care about) grow, recover or transform it within a time frame.

So this is how creating a strategy looks like, in a very easy example (can't disclose work related strategies :p), so I'll use a personal goal.

Define the goal and visualize the future

I want to break my personal record at a full distance triathlon (Ironman), where I have to swim 3.8Kms, bike 180kms and run a marathon 42.2kms.

I have done three full distance triathlons and my best time was 11hrs, 04min, 09 sec back in 2020, and I want to go below 11hrs, so 10hrs, 59min, 59secs is the specific goal, I called it #Project1059 .

Plan backwards

Now that you have defined your strategic objective, you have to work on your plan to achieve that strategic goal, take in consideration that the value of having a strategic goal is that every thing you do must get you closer to achieve your goal, if you plan to do something that is not adding to your objective, don't do it, you'll waste time and energy.

What's the timeframe I have to achieve the goal? 16 weeks.

What are the risks? Time constraints for training, possible injury and environmental elements.

With that, I created my overall plan which consisted in:

• 16-week training plan: The training plan was a 180hr training plan, that took in consideration my travel, some rest week to avoid injury or overload, 6 days a week (2 swims, 3 bike rides, 3 runs and 2 strength workouts).
• Nutrition plan: I started the plan with some more pounds than ideal, so a nutrition plan that aimed to reduce 20 pounds, so needed to be gradually in order to achieve it whilst having enough energy to do the training.
• Physiotherapy: One physiotherapy a week to ensure no injuries and that my muscles were not contracted to perform well on my training.
• Biohacking: How you body reacts to training, food, sleep, and other variables is really important, so all this was part of the things I was constantly monitoring and adjusting.
• Data: Data is very important to an effective training and achieve a goal, what's not measured cannot be improved, so I based my training on data, a lot of things were tracked, including: Weight, VO2Max, Fatigue, Form, Strain, Recovery, FTP, cadence, watts, pace, RHR, Respiration rate, heat acclimatization, altitude acclimatization, HRV and other different metrics. Which I was monitoring on a daily basis and making adjustments accordingly based on results.

Execute, adapt, teamwork and the power of coaching

Trust and embrace the process, most of the strategies don't fail at planning, fail at execution.

Once you have your plan well defined, it's time for execution, all your activities that are related to your strategic objective need to add to it, don't waste any energy on activities that won't take you closer to your goal.

While executing your plan, there will be times when things are not going as you expected, in my case, there was travel that had me change the training and do more running than other types of activities, or sometimes during this period I got sick and couldn't train at all, being adaptable is key to achieve your goals, if you don't adapt to the circumstances you will end up stressed and frustrated.

Having a coach or a leader is key to achieve the strategic goals, the coach will bring some push when needed, advice when you think you are not doing good, will motivate you when you are feeling down and at time will bring you back to the right track if you are deviating from the goals.

Teamwork is fundamental to achieve your goals, there are things you can't do alone, in this case, can you imagine a 7hr bike ride alone? No possible, that simple.

Delivering the results

After you plan gets executed, it's time to deliver, in my case, these were the results:

• Training plan: 180hrs planned, 147hrs delivered.
• Nutrition: 20lbs reduction planned, 15.4 delivered.
• Overall health: No injuries!
• Ironman PR: 10:59:59 planned, 10:56:44 achieved!

Conclusion

Visualize, plan, execute and deliver!... Along with adaptability, coaching, teamwork and constant monitoring of your key performance indicators.

Strategy is all about visualizing the future and dare to work for it, it's not easy, it's not simple, but it will make you better every time!

#Project1059 made me better this time!